As a prude myself I have a definite appreciation for where she is coming from in the article I linked, even though I have not seen all of the movies she mentions (the ones that I have seen are: Alien, The Terminator, Like Water for Chocolate, and About Schmidt, if you were wondering). However I do have a couple of my own to add:
- The Piano I saw this movie with my friend Sarah; in fact, she picked it out. And if you know Sarah, you would probably expect that anything she picked out couldn't be worse than, say, PG-13. So we rented this movie to watch on a rainy day when I was home visiting from college. And I don't really remember much about it, except for the full-frontal male nudity (which for some reason is worse than full-frontal female?) and the pornographic sex scene. Perhaps it's not as bad as I remember, and I might have handled it better if I had been somewhat more prepared to expect such a thing, but as mentioned, I was watching it with Sarah. Completely blindsided.
- The Matrix Reloaded There's that whole scene that's pretty much like a big orgy, spliced with scenes of Neo and Trinity doing it. Nakedly. I only remember a full-body side shot (though that may be faulty as I tend to block the worst things; see below), but even just that side shot continues to make me wonder. Were they fully naked? Were they wearing some sort of underpants that kept their genitals from touching? Is it still acting if they were actually having sex?
- Titanic Okay, so in truth I forgive Titanic for Kate Winslet's breasts because the nude part was sort-of plot critical. And it was kind of romantic, and sexual, but without sex. I respected that. I'm just still mad at this movie for having the characters give in and do it about 10 minutes later, as if somehow it can't be true love unless it's consummated. But that's a whole other rant that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with nudity.
- American Beauty I had no idea what this movie was going to be about when I went to see it. And Kevin Spacey's naked bum I could handle (as opposed to say, Terry Bradshaw's *shudder*). It was the boob shots of the two teenagers, Thora Birch (whom I shall always know as adorable little Dani from Hocus Pocus) and Mena Suvari (because the exposure was immediately followed by Kevin Spacey rubbing her chest) that bothered me. But overall, I actually liked this movie, believe it or not.
- Something's Gotta Give Joe and I saw this movie together after his parents said it was hilarious. And it was okay. But we both came away from it with sort of a squicky feeling, like if you just walked in on your parents doing something that you know they can't possibly have been doing because your parents just don't do that. This movie was not made for our generation. And that's okay. And from now on I will be more careful to stay away from movies where people my parents' age might be naked.
A funny story about this movie: the only "nudity" that I actually remembered was not actual nudity, but rather Diane Keaton in her bra. And prim, proper Diane Keaton in her undergarments was quite scarring enough for my little mind. But as I had forgotten the movie title, I went online to look it up, and was reminded in a plot summary that there was actual nudity in this movie: a full-frontal of Diane, plus Jack Nicholson's rear end. That's right... images so horrible that I had actually forced them out of my mind, to the point of forgetting ther were ever there at all. - Failure to Launch Terry Bradshaw's naked ass. Dear God, those words should not come together in the same sentence.
I'll also give an honorable mention to Wedding Crashers, which I have not seen even though supposedly it is hilarious. The honorable mention comes because the only reason I have not seen this movie is because I know that Jane Seymour's breasts make an appearance. But thank God for that knowledge.
It seems like it's awfully difficult to find a good movie these days. And that's not even with kids to worry about (and heaven knows "kid's movies" of late have not been very promising either). When they start coming along I shall just have to expand our movie collection with favorites from my own childhood. :-P